Where is the revolution?
“Where’s the revolution” Depeche Mode is asking on their CD “Spirit”. The British pop band has always been state-of-the-art with its witty lyrics and one again they hit the bull’s eye. At no time the question for a revolution has been more justified than now, when the world seems to have turn upside down.
To begin with the twilight of despotism which escalates around the world, started with North Korea, via China, the United States up to Russia and Turkey. It seems that dictatorial regimes spring up like mushrooms. At the same time the economy with its diesel scandal, animal experientation, completely overdrawn wages and insane bonuses far in excess. And also the policy of peace has lost its equilibrium: In Syria a proxy war is blustering since years and nobody seems to put an end to it.
What happened to the promising end of the 20th century after the iron curtain has fallen by voting for Gorbatschov, the demolition of the Berlin Wall and the disimprisonment of Nelson Mandela on February 11th, 1990? When Barack Obama was elected first black President of the US there was so much hope for the better. But now almost ten years later after an unparalleled wave of refugees which hit Europe everything is different? The fortress Europe is not only standing but encapsulated more than ever? States like Great Britain do not believe any more in a common European idea and prefer to has its own way. Fears, that states like France and Italy could jump on the same bandwagon did not only run rampant at the stock exchange. Is the future of Europe the setback to national states?
Is it really true that single states are better of on their own than in community? And does that vice versa mean that solidarity does not have a prayer in times of crisis? Caught in a crunch do people think only on themselves their own merits? What is the international community in terms of the United Nations doing in the Syrian case? Don’t you think it is shortsighted to assume that wars outside our homeland have nothing to do with us? And what is supposed to become of the generation that has been brought up in times of war and that knows nothing else than death, desperation and austerity and the feeling that the rest of the world is not just careless but left them in the lurch and even made them the playground for their weapon drill.
And who can you trust if you cannot trust the alledged “good guys” anymore as they turned out to be the devil in disguise as the OXFAM scandal showed lately. What kind of world is this anyway where even in the 21st century the tough ones rule over the weak ones and the rich hold sway over the world?
Is it naive to be filled with indignation if investors in front of the rolling camera chant that they build their new luxury resort only to people who are able to pay at least 2 million Euros for a house of 1,500 Euros for an overstay, “anybody else will be eliminated by us.” What kind of a world is this where the rich build hideaways in order not to be faced with poverty that they contributed to? And how neutral is a country like Switzerland that gives shelter to proprietors of Swiss Alps Andermatt or tax refugees like Marc Rich (Nomen est Omen?), found of Glencore? And why do Billionaires like the egyptian business men Samih Sawiris invest their money in Andermatt and not in his own country to give people in the economically weakest regions a more positive outlook? Well, I know there is the artificial “El Gouna” by Sawiris in the Sinai – but that does not count for me. Is that the answer to my question, the article of a German news magazine that writes about Sawiris: “An Egyptian Billionaire with Western behaviour and fluent in German.” Sure, no threatening sign of religion, no Rushbeard and Western dress style – the guy is more European than anything else and he is on the top rung.
And the rest of the world? Takes it all? The latest elections in Germany where they really protest votes? And if so what has become of it? A self-satisfied coalition where everybody is happy to have defended its political status and thereby its power and right to a pension? Paralysis instead of protest? Shopping instead of indignation?
So, where is the Revolution? Come on people you are letting me down!
